Posted on 02/01/2006 10:09:49 AM PST by SirLinksalot
Buchanan defends foreign aid – for Hamas
--------------------------------------------------------
Posted: February 1, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 Creators Syndicate Inc.
Ever since President Bush, sometime after 9-11, converted to neoconservatism, his Middle East policy has suffered from the triple defects of that subspecies of the Right: hubris, ideology and immaturity.
Neoconservatives see the world as they wish it to be, not as it is. Like teenagers, they act on impulse and rail against the counsel of experience. "Often clever, never wise," Russell Kirk said of the breed.
Repeatedly, Bush was warned by traditional conservatives that to send a U.S. army to occupy Baghdad would engender Arab rage and Islamic terror. Heeding the "cakewalk" crowd, he refused to listen. Three years later, we are trying to extricate a U.S. army from Iraq with the least possible damage to U.S. security interests.
Prodded again by neoconservatives, Bush declared our true goal had always been to democratize Iraq and the entire Islamic world. His second Inaugural resonated less of Reagan than of Rousseau:
So, it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.
To advance the end of "tyranny in our world," Bush began to call for elections across the Middle East. Again, he and Condi were warned that if these people were allowed to vote their convictions, they might just vote to throw us out and throw the Israelis into the sea.
Now that elections have been held, what do the returns show?
Propelled into or toward power have been Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, pro-Iranian Shiite zealots in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and Hamas in Gaza and on the West Bank.
Now, Condi, who denounced Bush's predecessors back to FDR for supporting dictators while preaching democracy in the Middle East, appears about to engage in a bit of hypocrisy of her own.
After insisting Hamas be included in the elections, Condi, stunned by the results and under pressure from Israel, has declared we will cut all aid to the Palestinian Authority if Hamas takes over the government, as Hamas was elected to do.
Bush agrees. Unless Hamas surrenders its weapons, abandons all armed resistance and recognizes Israel's right to exist, we will not give 10 cents to a Palestinian Authority that has Hamas as its head. Rice is said to be pressuring Europe to do the same. Unless Hamas remakes itself into a Mideast version of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Dr. King, we terminate aid.
Before adopting this knee-jerk reaction to an election we insisted go ahead, one trusts the president, this once, will think it through.
What is likely to happen if we proceed on such a course?
If we and the Europeans cut off aid, and Israel refuses to remit to the Palestinians the taxes they collect, the Palestinians will be put through hell for voting the wrong way. The Arabs will call us hypocrites who believe in elections only if they produce the results we demand.
And who could say they are wrong?
What will Hamas do? They are not going to disarm in the face of an Israeli military that has been killing Palestinians – collateral damage, of course – at four times the rate that Palestinians have been killing Israelis. They are not going to give up their trump card and recognize Israel's right to exist before they get a Palestinian state.
What will Hamas do? Hamas will accept the cut-off of aid, seek money from the Saudis and Iranians, do their best to keep the Palestinian people fed, clothed, housed and educated, and sacrifice for their people. And Hamas will fail. And when they fail, whom do we think will be blamed? When the Palestinian people have been broken because they voted the wrong way, whom do we think they will hate?
Let me propose another course. Put Hamas on probation.
For almost a year, Hamas has held to a truce with Israel and not engaged in attacks. Let America and Europe send word that if the truce holds, if Hamas does not attack Israeli civilians, if Hamas show its first concern is, as it claims, bettering the life of the Palestinian people, we will let the aid flow. But if Hamas reignites the war, we will not finance the war. We will terminate the aid.
Make Hamas responsible for continuing the aid. And make Hamas responsible for terminating it, if it comes to that.
Understandably, the Israelis are close to hysterical over the landslide for Hamas and are on a diplomatic campaign to have all donors end all aid to a Palestinian Authority dominated by Hamas.
But that is not in our interests. It is not even in Israel's interest. For it has been Israel's behavior, and uncritical U.S. support for that behavior, that produced this victory for Hamas. To continue on that road is to arrive at, literally, a dead end.
Bush has unleashed a revolution in the Middle East, and it is everywhere bringing to power Islamic fundamentalists. Either we deal with them, or fight them or get out of the Middle East.
They're already on multiple-times-secret probation, and they're already violated. Time for Dean Olmert to pull their charter, raze the house to the cellar, and salt the ground.
Gee .. Pat and Jimmy Carter defending terrorists
Being half right doesn't make you worth listening to. In fact it makes you suspect of another agenda.
Perhaps Pat was sodomized by a Rabbi?
Do you know over at Free Dominion (a Canadian conservative site) we have lurkers that are Pat Buchanan wannabes. They continue to post his articles and argue against intervention in Iran, and they get away with it.
Would you negotiate with an organized death cult street gang in your neighbourhood having repeatedly murdered members of your own family and stated publicly their goal is to exterminate your entire family, and all your friends - simply because you are Jewish?
Soon, Israel, America, England, Australia and other key Allies shall repay the bank-rollers and arms merchants of Hamas & other jihadist gangs, Iran and Syria. Whose side are you going to be on?
I'd believe it.
It's what Pat's supporters are relegated too.
it makes you wonder if he realizes how popular he is with Seniors in Southern Florida /sarcasm
:)
If being a hardliner means have the freedom to destroy terrorist groups, then call me a rabid drooling hardliner.
Pat is a troll and is to be treated as such.
Bingo. All the democratic process does is produce a government that is favored by the majority of the people.
As the majority of the people on the planet are fairly nice the government elected will be fairly nice as well. However there are always groups that are not fairly nice but are total loons. It is always possible that they will be elected.
The up side is that this removes any touch of victimhood when the fairly nice people of the world get together and squash them like bugs.
You can't blame "the government", as if they were some seperate entity, you selected them.
LOL!!!
no, a nazi piece of crap!
I hear you, believe me. However, would you have been okay being a displaced Arab; told that you had to leave your property for the good of someone else? I think that I would have some heartburn with that even though you might not if you were in the same situation.
His constant anti israel-anti -jewish diatribes have made him clownish.I used to respect him untill i saw his and Novacks overriding hatred ,makes them bad representatives of conservatism..He should use W H Buckley as an example. Pat--you have become a Fool as much as cindy shehag is.put a sock in it YOU PAT are ANTI AMERICAN, YOU PAT ARE ON THE SIDE OF THE EVIL ONES,YOU PAT GIVE AID AND COMFORT TO THE SLIME THAT IS AMERICAS ENEMY-SO SHUT UP!!!
Shocking that people dare to express a dissenting viewpoint. They should be sent to a reeducation camp at once.
I cant believe I once worked on his campaign in 96
what an idiot.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.